Podcast Content


The Inspiring Life and Career of Our 2024 MVP: Pablo Moncayo

Our guest today is Pablo Moncayo, Project Manager here at Candelaria Design since 2018 and our current year’s MVP as voted by the entire Candelaria Design staff. Each year our team nominates and votes for our Most Valuable Player – someone who embodies teamwork, leadership, a willingness to learn and go the extra mile. We talk about what this means to Pablo, how his childhood lead him to architecture, his projects past and present, how he has seen the architectural landscape change here in Phoenix and his goals for the future. 
Pablo moved here from Chihuahua, Mexico in 2001 to live with his Aunt. Later in 2008 he went to undergrad at Taliesin-The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, now known as The School of Architecture and later earned his master’s degree in Architecture there. He has since remained a board member at the School of Architecture. He shares with us his passions, his sources of design inspiration, favorite travel destinations, and his inspiring personal story!

The School of Architecture formerly known as Taliesin-The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture: https://www.tsoa.edu/  

Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona: https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/

Elrod House in Palm Springs, California: https://architectuul.com/architecture/the-elrod-house

Arango Mabrisa House in Acapulco, Mexico: https://archeyes.com/arango-marbrisa-house-john-lautner/

 Las Setas in Sevilla, Spain: https://www.setasdesevilla.com/en/

 La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain: https://sagradafamilia.org/en/

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia, Spain: https://cac.es/en/

Catching Fire with Nick Hogan of Pyro Restaurant

Our guest today is Nick Hogan, Co-Owner and CEO of Flagship Restaurant Group, the team behind the popular new, award-winning restaurant Pyro in Arcadia, next to the Global Ambassador. In addition to Pyro, they have 16 other restaurant concepts spanning across Arizona to Chicago to Nashville! This team has defied the odds of successfully creating and managing multiple restaurant concepts simultaneously and talks about all the risks and luck in this journey.

In this episode we’ll hear about how this restaurant group founded over 20 years ago in Omaha, NE got started with a team of four friends who are still the same group of owners. Since, they have grown to multiple cities and states and over 40 locations and become a success here in Arizona. Just like architecture, this career is a mix of creativity and mathematics and takes a great team and leadership.

Nick will tell us about how Pyro came about and the design and menu creation. Also here in town, be sure to check out the beautifully designed Palma, Cham Pang Lanes and Ghost Donkey in downtown Phoenix and later this year two Blue Sushi Sake Grill locations are coming to Surprise and Tempe and a couple more in the works for 2026!

To learn more about Flagship Restaurant Group visit:

 www.flagshiprestaurantgroup.com